Pretty Ugly

Thirteen dark stories, some set in New Zealand and some in the United Kingdom, ask how much one human life can take. Their plots turn on conflict and concealment: longing and compulsion, jealousy, ambitions achieved and wishes refused, deceit hidden under appearances, and in one case a hatred to the death. Wind turbines burn and salmon turn up mutated. The characters face forces that test their endurance, and against these the stories set moments of something that lasts: the memory of an untouched river, deer running together across a hillside, and a gun that is raised but not fired.

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About the book

Form

Short stories

Set in

New Zealand, United Kingdom

First published

2024 by Otago University Press

Author's age

64 when first published

ISBN

9781990048890 (Otago University Press, New Zealand)